Both platforms can sell products. Below is what we actually ship differently — based on documented features on each platform's site.
Feature
simplestores
Shopify
Price (monthly subscription)
₹0 (Free forever) or ₹499/mo (Growth)
₹3,300 (Basic)
Native UPI + WhatsApp Commerce
Native — UPI checkout & WhatsApp order alerts, no app
UPI via paid app · WhatsApp via BSP subscription
Mobile PageSpeed score
100/100 (zero layout shift)
Varies by theme — typically 60–85
AI Theme Studio (prompt-to-store design)
Native — describe your brand, get a full theme
Shopify Magic (AI copywriting only, no theme design)
GST Invoicing
Native — GSTIN on every PDF invoice
Paid app required
Transaction fee (per order)
Flat ₹2.5
2% of GMV
SEO generation
Paid app ($20/mo)
Abandoned-cart automation
Shopify $99/mo plan
Service-industry bookings
Finance & Accounting (double-entry ledger, P&L, balance sheet, journal, bank recon, fixed assets)
Native module built-in — no export needed
3rd-party Tally / Zoho / QuickBooks apps required
HR & Payroll (employees, attendance, salary runs, PF / ESI / TDS deductions, payslips)
Native module built-in
3rd-party HRMS integration required
Inventory ↔ Payroll ↔ Orders sync
Automatic — single unified DB
Requires ERP glue between separate apps
Multi-location inventory tracking
Tally / Zoho / QuickBooks export
Native + CSV/Excel export
Native app
Themes & industry templates
14+ hand-crafted themes + Theme Studio (live color / font / button radius / style / custom CSS editor)
100+ themes but $180+ per premium theme
Custom domain with auto-SSL
Included, one-click Domainee
Included, but $14/yr for domain
Storefront A/B testing
Native — two theme variants + traffic split
Paid app ($29/mo)
Developer API + Webhooks
REST API with scoped keys + outbound webhooks — free
REST + GraphQL API, rate-limited by plan
Multi-language storefront
5 languages native (EN, HI, TA, TE, KN)
Paid app ($19/mo) for translations
Multi-currency
Native
Shopify Payments only
B2B wholesale channel (tiered pricing + MOQ + GSTIN accounts)
Native module built-in
Shopify Plus tier ($2,300+/mo) only
Uptime SLA (publicly monitored)
99.9% — probed every 5 min at simplestores.in/status
99.98% (Shopify Trust Center)
Architecture / scalability
Kubernetes + FastAPI + MongoDB, auto-scaling pods
Ruby on Rails on Google Cloud
Unlimited products
On Growth (₹499/mo) & Business plans
All plans
MSG91 OTP + WhatsApp templates
App store ecosystem
Growing
8,000+ apps